Fusion 360 vs. Solidworks/CAMWorks....

Spencer in NH · Apr 2, 2016

I have been a SolidWorks user for a long time. And because of the work I do, it's likely that that won't end anytime soon. My shop is a prototype shop. Low quantities, R&D, etc. When I needed CAM software, I chose CAMWorks, and was very happy with it for a number of years.

Recently, the planets aligned to cause me to question my dedication to CAMWorks. It started with a snarky response to a request of my local VAR (details not important), and a review of all my software maintenance costs. It turns out that CAMWorks is the largest annual maintenance cost of all my in-house software, except for a very expensive, specialized engineering package that is not CAD/CAM related.

I was thusly motivated to investigate Fusion 360. At $300 per year, it sounded too good to be true. Well, I have been playing with it for a day or two, and have pretty much convinced myself that it can completely replace CAMWorks as my CAM package. It *may* cause me to use SolidWorks less, also, but the important thing I proved to myself is that I can import any SW files and proceed to generate CAM output from Fusion 360.

So, am I missing something? It is really this good? Is there any reason not to ditch the $2000/year expense for a $300/year expense and pick up some more modern functionality?

Gotta admit, I am pretty excited about the prospect.

Thanks for your input.

gkoenig · Apr 3, 2016

Do you do any 3D milling?
Because if not, HSM Works integrates into SolidWorks for free.

DavidScott · Apr 3, 2016

I think Fusion is pretty damn good. If you like it this much after a few days I would say go with it. The more I use it the more I like it and it has been my cad/cam for the last 2 years. I only use the cam for milling so I have no opinion on turning.

Spencer in NH · Apr 3, 2016

gkoenig said:
Do you do any 3D milling?
Because if not, HSM Works integrates into SolidWorks for free.

I do. And it's in Fusion 360 for the $300/yr.

Spencer in NH · Apr 3, 2016

DavidScott said:
I think Fusion is pretty damn good. If you like it this much after a few days I would say go with it. The more I use it the more I like it and it has been my cad/cam for the last 2 years. I only use the cam for milling so I have no opinion on turning.

Thanks. That's useful feedback.

Atomkinder · Apr 3, 2016

For milling I'd take Fusion 360 over CAMWorks any day. Since everything we do is in SW though we went with a license of HSMWorks. We are on subscription, and it's still cheaper than our CAMWorks+2.5D Volumill maintenance was, and IMO much more user friendly and intuitive.

I've played a little with turning, and its shortcoming seem to be addressed faster than HSMWorks, although that's not much of a feat. I've also been a mill guy for years so I've got a steeper learning curve than someone who's been on a lathe with any regularity.

I say if you like it and it does what you need, go for it.

Perry Harrington · Apr 3, 2016

My view is this way: Lots of people use Solidworks with HSMworks, gets the job done.

Fusion 360 is neat, is very actively developed, but is also buggy as hell.

Fusion is cheap (or free), does a lot of nice/neat things, but if your primary business is getting things done, it might not be a good fit for you until they have a non-beta product with documentation.

One of the things I find frustrating about Fusion is the lack of proper documentation, they seem to believe "social media" will be their documentation, which is not really acceptable for businesses.

Spencer in NH · Apr 5, 2016

Well, I am going to give Fusion 360 a chance. I can still run CAMWorks anytime I want to, so it will be an interesting comparison. And when renewal time comes along for CAMWorks, I'll have had plenty of time to make a decision.

Had a nice conversation with a sales/support person from Fusion today. They called me. Was impressed with their attention to their customer. The guy was honest and truly understood their market position.

More to follow. I'll post updates.

Bluejeep · Oct 21, 2016

Does the op or anybody have any further opinions on making the switch. I am also looking into dropping Camworks. How's the learning curve compared to camworks? Hows the support to get a working post?
I can no longer justify Camworks huge maintnence fee just for the ability to open each new years solidworks files. I should add that I have always recieved great support from my Camworks reseller

Spencer in NH · Oct 21, 2016

I officially dropped off CAMWorks maintenance in favor of Fusion 360.

No regrets so far.

Pete Deal · Oct 21, 2016

Knowing Autodesk as I do I am sure the $300 per year is only temporary. I don't have Solidworks but was considering buying but went with the Fusion subscription for now. I got subscription pricing for Solidworks in an email recently and their yearly pricing is in the $2k-$3k/year range.

Freds · Oct 21, 2016

Bluejeep,

Couple of questions:

1) All of your work 'in-house' design, machining or do you receive work from outside designed in Solidworks?

2) What machines do you need posts for? And do you need 5-axis positioning/simultaneous?

The two programs are different in their approach to creating code; Camworks, (Featurecam/Delcam for Solidworks - what we used in the past)are feature based and highly automated with respect to tool choices, feed/speed, etc. Whereas Fusion 360 is procedural based and requires more interaction from the programmer (though it can be automated to some degree using templates and other features). Your best bet to get some idea of how Fusion's CAM works is to go to Youtube and search for Fusion 360 CAM. Plenty of videos from basic to advanced to give you the flavor of the experience.

Fred

csharp · Oct 21, 2016

I would say if you can go with Fusion then go for it. What is not to like about saving money.

No one can say with certainty if the pricing will go up or not. But you could have no promise of that with most software do you?

I got an email the other day that stated the Ultimate version would be back and priced at $1500/year.

Has things like the below list.

Simulation
Buckling
Nonlinear stress
Event simulation
Shape generator
CAM
3 + 2-axis matching
4-axis matching
5-axis matching
Access to 1000 cloud credits

I was an early adopter of Fusion and have used it off and on over the past couple years. I think they are honestly off to a pretty great start. Some things I like better about HSMWorks and some things better in Fusion. Turning is currently a weakness IMO, but has come along way. I think they have some great concepts and UI/UX in turning and are close. What I would be most hopeful for would be to get past this up coming release for AU2016 and see them STOP adding features and really go back and polish what they have started. Biggest complaint is to many things never really finished.

Bluejeep · Oct 21, 2016

Is the fusion turning usefull at all? Seems like every where i look peoples opinion is that it doesnt really work.

len_1962 · Oct 21, 2016

remember you can get 2.5 axis HSMWorks for free to use inside of SW, so you can have the ease of SW.

Shawnrs · Oct 21, 2016

Bluejeep

Here are a couple of things I would do.

1) Check with your vender on a custom software package that you only use for example if you only do milling make sure you do not have turning packaged in your maintenance. Some of these packages are grouped together which can increase your maintenance.

2) If you change your software find a local vender and schedule a demo, give them one of your easy parts and one of your difficult parts and have the vender demo your parts. Send them a code file and format to see if they can duplicate your program.

csharp · Oct 21, 2016

Bluejeep said:
Is the fusion turning usefull at all? Seems like every where i look peoples opinion is that it doesnt really work.

Yes it can be used. It is lacking in some areas, but also very lacking in the level of videos and tutorials as milling. So it really have to fiddle with it more than you should to get good results.

I am used to a cam system where I can create an operation the first time and know the outcome of every single change to a setting that I make. So while I have made lathe parts in fusion it is typically more time consuming. I don't have the years of experience in Fusion as I do the SmartCAM so that probably skews it a little.

Perry Harrington · Oct 21, 2016

Since my last comment, I used Fusion to model an AR-10 lower receiver from scratch. I've learned that Fusion is one of those "there is more than one way to do it" types of programs. Finding the most efficient is the trick. Being able to offset projection planes is the one thing that would have made it a lot faster. As it was, it only took me something like 12 hours to model an AR-10 from scratch. It took me several weeks to do a similar task in BobCAD as 5 2D views. Then it took a few more weeks to get the CAM done. All told I spent 5-6 weeks on the CAD/CAM for that.

Bluejeep · Oct 21, 2016

Freds said:
Bluejeep,

Couple of questions:

1) All of your work 'in-house' design, machining or do you receive work from outside designed in Solidworks?

2) What machines do you need posts for? And do you need 5-axis positioning/simultaneous?

The two programs are different in their approach to creating code; Camworks, (Featurecam/Delcam for Solidworks - what we used in the past)are feature based and highly automated with respect to tool choices, feed/speed, etc. Whereas Fusion 360 is procedural based and requires more interaction from the programmer (though it can be automated to some degree using templates and other features). Your best bet to get some idea of how Fusion's CAM works is to go to Youtube and search for Fusion 360 CAM. Plenty of videos from basic to advanced to give you the flavor of the experience.

Fred

Almost all my work is designed in solidworks by my customers though I do design fixturing in house. Mainly 3 axis machining, Acromatic pc2100 control on a tree 750 vmc and if i were to do turning on a hitachi sieki ht20 with fanuc 3t controll. I am sure that i dont have turning in my maintence subscription
.

Muzzer · Oct 21, 2016

Bear in mind that the CAM in Fusion 360 is HSM Works. Autodesk owns both of them. The difference is that although the 2.5D version (HSMXpress) is offered for free to SW users, you get the full 3 axis (and previewing now in 5 axis?) with F360. Also, F360 is free to businesses with turnover under $100k per year - and hobby users. The SW / HSMXpress deal is a legacy thing, whereas the F360 project is alive and kicking.

Fusion 360 vs. Solidworks/CAMWorks....

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